TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Center for Reading
Research and College of Communication and
Information at Florida State University have
announced a collaborative partnership with Harvard
Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Integrated
Learning Initiative (MITili) to research improving
early childhood literacy through personalized
intervention.

The goal of the five-year, $30 million Reach Every Reader project is to ensure that,
through individualized assessment and interventions, every child learns to read well
enough by the end of third grade. Research shows that a student who fails to read
adequately in first grade has a 90 percent probability of reading poorly in fourth
grade, and a 75 percent probability of reading poorly in high school. This
compounds the need to level the playing field and help all children thrive and
succeed as readers.

Lead FSU researchers Dr. Yaacov Petscher at the Florida Center for Reading
Research and Dr. Hugh Catts at the College of Communication and Information will
combine their knowledge of literacy screening and assessment with MIT’s strengths
in science and engineering, and Harvard’s proven expertise in early childhood
education.

“We are very excited to be working with researchers from Harvard and MIT on this
CZI funded project,” stated Dr. Catts. “We know that reading and language
disabilities can have a significant negative impact on children’s academic
achievement, psycho-social wellbeing, and future employment opportunities. So it is
crucial that we identify children who are at risk early and provide them with
appropriate intervention. In this collaboration, we are developing and evaluating
screening tools for this identification.”

“Innovation is key,” added Dr. Petscher. “By partnering with MIT and Harvard, we
have a unique opportunity to explore innovations in how we measure reading and
language skills with advanced measurement systems and new technologies. Our
desire is to bring to bear interdisciplinary research, to better understand the
beneficial and adverse childhood experiences so that assessment results can guide
teachers and caregivers to better support the totality of children’s educational
needs.”

Hugh CattsProfessor, College of Communication and Information

The Reach Every Reader project is supported by Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark
Zuckerberg, co-founders of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. CZI has invested in a
range of educational research initiatives including personalized learning and
expanded access to test preparation tools for assessments such as the SAT.

The Florida Center for Reading Research is a multidisciplinary research center at Florida State University that explores all aspects of reading research — basic research into literacy-related skills for typically developing readers and those who struggle, studies of effective prevention and intervention, and psychometric work on formative assessment. For more information, please contact Nathan Archer at narcher@fcrr.org.